


Alternate Realities Vol 20. Virus

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [16]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 08:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9540239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: If you've not read previous volumes Mattie/Matilda has discovered that she can talk to herself. Her Alternate Self in another parallel world that exists in the same time as hers. Only how each world has developed is different. So far they've shared enough common ground for things to make sense to each other, they're all talking English for starters, which helps.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you've not read previous volumes Mattie/Matilda has discovered that she can talk to herself. Her Alternate Self in another parallel world that exists in the same time as hers. Only how each world has developed is different. So far they've shared enough common ground for things to make sense to each other, they're all talking English for starters, which helps.

Laura paced back and forth, bumped the trolley again. Being called away from a case was bad. The message coming very publicly via Sophie sat in the gallery of The High Court in London mid closing statement made it far worse. Mats was in hospital.

Two days earlier:

M.E. Hawkins Ltd's CEO held her coffee and scowled at her visitor. He'd pretended to expect to see a man and called her a PA. Mats reset her graph and gave him paperwork. He needed a reminder. The NDA he was being asked to look at had a statement saying that the MEH CEO's true identity would never be revealed if one day they were to learn who it was. They'd signed it over fifteen years ago. Being in small print the line had either been skipped over or forgotten. Code manufacturing and computing was an exclusively male run business.

No women worked in Information Technology. It wasn't allowed.

Not through any law, just men favouring other men in job interviews. Was it illegal to discriminate? Most definitely. Did anyone within the industry do anything about it? No.

Women could be a wife, nurse, landscape gardener, cook, anything from many thousands of roles. But a professional coder not hobbyist? And company CEO? That was unheard of.

Laura had fought hard to become a lawyer, putting the sexist establishment's nose well and truly out of joint. She was fighting hard to get women's rights in other jobs too. A very young Mats had been inspired to do the same in her favourite field but via stealth. People would hear Mats and think Matt's. "That is your signature at the bottom is it not Eric?"

"It is, but.."

"Oh this better be a frigging good one or I'm cancelling your account and erasing all data before the lift gets you back to the ground floor." Her hand hovers over the enter key. Having a client get this far into the building and up to the ninety sixth floor demanding to see the CEO without an appointment was not allowed. Ever.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Your exascale computing platform has been the only one capable of breaking the American-Chinese encryption."

Mats expression changes slightly, "Go on?"

"The Chinese said they were building their exascale platform to help simulate particle physics in manufacturing, we both know what that tower block really does. And our agents have evidence to point a finger at Area 51 as being the site for America's equivalent."

"So that's what you had it number crunching. All the noise about predicting weather patterns was a front. Interesting. Toby would be stoked to hear that."

"How is your brother?"

Mats froze for a moment. Eric knew a lot more than he should. "He's good, still running his book publishing firm. If you know about him I assume you know he's the one that nicknamed it Deep Thought in memory of Douglas Adams?"

"We do."

"Who exactly is _we_? What's your true business if you're not the Met Office? I have code analysing your every facial expression, one lie and it will tell me your not being truthful, your account will be history."

"Just the sort of technology we want. We are MI5 and MI6. I'm caretaker head at the moment. And we want you, Matilda Elizabeth Hawkins to work for us. You'd be ideal. Nobody would expect a woman to be in charge. I'd like you to meet James Owen, an excellent agent, came up through the ranks of the RAF. We have a Quartermaster, also good at coding and making gadgets, he's not in your league though. He's the son of a professor that tried to make an AI robot at the start of the millennium."

She was in her mid thirties, he'd be maybe in his late sixties early seventies? Mats took her hand away from the keyboard and sat on the edge of her chair, adjusted the height to look him straight in the eyes. It had become so ingrained that she did it without thinking. She wanted to be on an equal level, neither looking up nor down at others. Being shorter than most of the men she worked with she always wore killer heals, a height boost always helped. Her heals were really killing her, she desperately wanted to take them off. "Which one? Elster, Hobb or Millican?"

"You're knowledgeable in the field, clearly. Elster."

"You've got Leo Elster working for you?"

"You know him?"

"Of him. Not personally. Married to a stunning Asian lady called Mia."

"Yes, we have James looking into her, sadly. We're worried we'll have to let Leo go."

"Why?"

"We do semi regular checks on all key staff and their immediate family and associates. Our last check had our agent notice something odd and we looked further. We've compared images of her ten years ago to images of her now. She's not aged at all. As you know all cosmetic surgery was outlawed after the 2019 superbug pandemic. Any breaking of skin not for life saving operations is punishable by long prison sentences for all involved. And cosmetic drugs were banned the year after, even a needle causes too much of a break."

Mats took a sip of coffee. "What makes you think I'd be good heading the departments?"

"You're running a firm with over three thousand employees, the majority of whom are women, and from what we can tell have been able to ensure only UK firms use your services."

"Correct."

"How?"

"That's a trade secret. Sorry. I can't leave my firm to join your organisation, I've got nobody in line to take over as CEO."

"I was thinking it could work the other way around. We join you. MI5 and MI6 would continue as shell operations in name only. A decoy duck as it were."

Mats placed her coffee mug on the desk. "And my incentive to do so is what?"

"Help break the fascist-communist stranglehold on the world's manufacturing. Between them they own the rights to most of the worlds raw materials. And of course we'd protect the identity of the many women who work for you. Having your senior coders revealed as such and not doing the profession declared on their income statements would be embarrassing for everyone. The government included. You have agents working under false identities just like us. As I said, you're an ideal person for the job."

Mats glanced over at her screen, the graph that had been drawing towards the middle of the screen hadn't dipped into the red once. "When would you want me to start?"

"As soon as possible. And we'd want you to oversea the development of a second exascale platform at the Elster estate."

Mats gets up and walks to the window. The cloud cover was low again today, it was a beautiful sunny day up here, dull and overcast down below. Possibly raining or snowing. "Let me sleep on it. And my identity is shared with nobody until I agree to it."

He joins her at the window. "Understood." He watches a jetliner leave contrails higher in the sky. "Why did you make 96 floors?"

"It's one more than the Shard. And 96 is eleven oh-oh oh-oh oh in binary."

"You like your binary don't you Miss Hawkins. Or M as I'd be calling you."

Mats looked at the clouds ripple, the exascale must have been asked to work hard, the building had just dumped a lot of hot air. "This Elster estate, you have a shell company to front it?"

"We hoped you would."

"I'll take a look at it, give you my thoughts on it being suitable. Got a postcode?"

"Yes."

"If you could read it out loud before you leave, Viera will make a note of it."

"Viera?"

"My PA. The name means Tree Fighter in Norse."

"Where is she?"

"Right here."

"On this floor?"

"In this room. Viera dear, say hello. And bring B to the floor please."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-2-2)


	2. Chapter 2

Mats smiled at the man as the lift door closed. The moment the light came on to acknowledge it had started to move downwards she kicked off her heals and walked back into her office. "Viera, could you open the door to the bathroom please dear."

"Yes Mats."

A wall panel moves inwards a little and slides sideways. She steps into the bathroom and holds her hands under the soap dispenser then running water. "Lock the lift between floors and disable the alarm. What's the WHO report like today?"

Viera had learnt that WHO emphasised like that meant World Health Organisation not who. "Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus is up three percent in the southeast of England."

Mats washed her hands like a surgeon, got right up to the elbows. She reaches for tiny disposable black goggles that sat over the eyes just inside the sockets. "UV on please dear." She was bathed in narrow wavelength UV light. "What's my appointment schedule like for the rest of the day?"

"It's now empty. Daniel sends his apologies, he's got an issue with chiller fourteen again."

"Again? Frigging thing. Can you message him, tell him if it's late when he fixes it he's welcome to join me for dinner."

"Done."

"Tell him that if it's the same part again we need to find someone to manufacture it in the UK. And I don't care if the price is twice as high. We can't operate without cooling."

"Done."

"Thanks." She stands there with legs slightly apart and arms out. "Next item of business. How the _fuck_ did that man get to my floor?"

"I've reviewed the access pass usage and CCTV. He came into the building and asked to see the New Accounts team. Instead of staying on floor 20 he changed lifts and used the Police Commissioner's pass."

"Attach our scan of the Commissioner's signed contract to an email to the Commissioner, with a read receipt set. Subject Expect a call in five minutes. Standard signature. Send as soon as it's ready."

"It's sent."

"Good. Schedule a call to his private mobile for five minutes please. And UV off, I think that should be enough." She pulls the glasses off and drops them into a dedicated recycling bin.

As she steps back into her office space the lift bings. The door opens to reveal a very dirty Daniel covered in grease. She glances at her heals by the lift and sits on her desk with one leg over the other. "Viera open the doors for him please, I don't want him touching anything."

"Greetings Programs! That bloody unit Mats, I swear if I have to fix it one more time.."

"Calm down."

"Sods law the heat extracted by that unit runs the staff showers and sinks. I'm going to have to use your bathroom again, sorry."

"Do you know how long it took the cleaners to get it spotless after the last time you used it?"

"Yeah. Two days. If you weren't such a bloody germaphobe.."

"Get in there. I've got an important call in a moment."

"Viera, shower on please. And all cameras locked off, I've heard all the stories from Toby."

Mats leans back and supports herself with palms flat against the desk top, "Spoil sport."

He turns and steps close, "If you can put your fear of germs aside you can see it all for real. I'll UV for four minutes first too." Daniel Candlin, head hardware engineer, winked. He turned and slowly walked into the bathroom. "See you in five?"

As the door closed behind him Mats turned and sat down. "How long before that call is due?"

"Two minutes and twenty three seconds."

"Read receipt back yet?"

"Yes."

"Good." She looks towards the closed bathroom door. He'd run DCL for a few years before they met. Toby had suggested him, a friend from school. Installing a wicked sound and projection system on her penthouse floor she'd recognised his talent and offered him a job. He'd accepted, spent half his time with each each firm. His office was floor 42. He was her semi-secret crush.

Sitting up she yawned, got off the desk and walked to the lift to collect her shoes. "Stick some music on dear."

Whethan: Savage plays. She gyrates to the music as the DCL bass cannons vibrate everything in the room. At the lift she twists and turns getting down into a squat, grabs her shoes and repeats the moves to get up. Dancing with shoes held high in the air she steps to the bathroom door and rubs up against it, shoulders and bottom against the cold smooth surface. The bass was pounding, just how she liked it.

The volume lowered significantly. "Call time Mats."

"Thanks. Music off. Intercom on please."

Beep.

"How's the UV going?"

"Good. Taking me up on the offer?"

"Just checking you're okay. Want dinner here?"

"What's cooking?"

"What do you fancy?"

"Salmon stir fry."

"You're on."

"Cool."

"Got to make a call, talk soon. Intercom off please Viera and dial his mobile."

The sound of a ringing tone fills the room.

"Miss Hawkins, how are you?"

"Pretty good. And you Commissioner?"

"Not bad thanks. What can I do for you? Your email had our contract attached, we're not due to renew for over a year."

"Do you have it in front of you?"

"I do."

"Section 11.1e. If you could have a read."

There's silence for a moment. "You have me worried Miss Hawkins. If you had legitimate reason to invoke the penalty clause you could bankrupt the Metropolitan Police."

"You had privileged access to my office while we developed the London CCTV Terrorist Tracker. There are only three people who have direct access to the reception area on my floor. My head engineer, myself.. and you."

"What's happened?"

"Your pass was used by a client who now claims to be the acting head of MI5 to get onto the floor not fifteen minutes ago. Got your wallet on you?"

There's a long pause. "Yes. ID card missing."

"Would you like to collect it? He's currently being held between floors."

"I'm on my way!"

"How long?"

"Tad over fifteen?"

"No blues and twos right?"

"No, we'll be as quiet as a mouse, come in through the basement."

"We?"

"I'm with a detective friend. Pete Drummond. Mind if he tags along?"

"No, bring him along. Matt will be out."

"Isn't he always?"

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-3-2)


	3. Chapter 3

Mats leans up against the door again. "Intercom on please."

Beep.

"How's the shower? Dinner will be delayed, the Commissioner and a detective are on their way over."

"Why?"

"I've allegedly got the acting head of MI5 held prisoner in lift carriage B."

Daniel bursts out laughing, "No fucking way! You've kidnapped the head of MI5?"

"He stole the Commissioner's personal ID card."

"Class move Mats, that's one to tell the grandkids in years to come. I did wonder why carriage A stopped at my floor, I usually get B. A for Angels, B for Bugs."

"You can tell them apart?"

"Sure."

"How?"

"I'll show you later. So, got time for a quickie?"

"Quick what?"

"Look."

She could hear the water running. What the heck. She stood upright. "Viera, door open please."

Inside she finds Daniel under the shower washing off soap.

"Getting in then?"

"Me? No."

"I should call you MEGH."

"Do what?"

"Matilda Elizabeth Germaphobe Hawkins."

"Viera, shower to cold please."

Daniel moved fast, with dry feet she moved faster as he tried to catch her around the waist. She grabbed the hair dryer off the wall and held it out like a gun. He froze, hands almost touching. "Bang! You're dead."

"You're a bad woman Matilda Hawkins."

"Too slow. You're always far too slow. You need new moves."

"Or you need to change the rules of the game."

"No. You need new moves."

"When did you last go out and see the world? Breathe air that hasn't been filtered?"

"Um.."

"Ages ago obviously. You can't expect the world to keep coming to you. It's not healthy." He grabs a towel and steps into the office space naked. "Viera, based on your simulations is there any way for me to win the game?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Spoilers Daniel. Would you like dry clothes?"

"I thought I'd meet the commissioner naked and just let it all hang out."

"Sarcasm?"

"Yes Viera."

A narrow panel motors into the office space. The panel was one end of a hanging rail on which several pairs of jeans and t-shirts hung behind a collection of well tailored suits. Bags of socks and underwear sat in a wire mesh basket at the bottom.

"Daniel."

"Yes Viera?"

"The Commissioner is entering the lift in the car park."

"Shit!" He jumps into high gear, quickly dries his hair then body, tosses the towel into the bathroom and dresses.

The lift bings as he's running fingers through his hair.

"Commissioner!"

"Matilda! This is DS Pete Drummond. Pete, this is Matilda and Daniel."

DS Drummond looks unimpressed. "Hello. I've heard about this place. Matt, is he about?"

Mats pulls a you-serious face, "This time of day? You'll be lucky!"

"Where is he then?"

Daniel shrugs, "Golf course, out wining and dining the latest supermodel, who knows?"

"So where's the guy with the ID card?"

Mats does a nod to where they'd just come from, "Feet away in the lift."

"But we just came up in the lift. It was empty before we got in."

"Yes. And no. Viera, keep the doors to this floor open, open the internal doors to B and bring it too this floor please."

Inside the lift Eric watched the 96th floor come into view, the feet of three men and one woman. Mats shoes were unique.

"Hello Eric."

"Hello John."

Mats does a circling and downwards motion with a hand. A clear "I'll hit the enter key" sign.

"So you know each other?"

"Yes."

John holds a hand out, "My card please. I assume you had James take it from me?"

"If I revealed my agencies methods it would weaken our abilities and make you look foolish. I'll keep the how a secret."

ID card safely back in his wallet he turns to Mats, "Will Matt want to press charges?"

Daniel shakes his head, "For something he didn't see? Best we keep this to our selves don't you think? He's sacked people and cancelled accounts for far less."

DS Drummond walks to the window and looks down through a gap in the clouds, gets vertigo and quickly steps backwards into the room. "So what do you two do?"

"I'm head hardware engineer."

"Me? I keep the place tidy for Matt."

"Live in lover or proper PA?"

Mats shrugs, "Bit of both I guess."

Drummond looks at the almost floor to ceiling display that dominated one wall. "OLED?"

Daniel nods. "16K lines."

"Not bad, must be good for the live football. I'd always wondered, how did Matt get such a huge operation together? This building must have cost a fortune let alone the computers that fill it."

"Not seen the video?"

"Seen loads, which one?"

"Toddler Matt?"

"No."

"Viera, play the early years video please."

The video used male actors to play her and fake Dad through the years. Mats had got an HP PDA for her second birthday so Joe could have his one back. She used it for creating pretty patterns, then more advanced drawings, practicing her alphabet, writing simple notes. Two years later and home one day she wondered out loud if there was a program to draw kaleidoscope patterns. Joe had been working from home as Laura was away, had a moment of curiosity.

They didn't find an app for that. But Joe did find a BASIC language interpreter. It was as slow as a stunned snail but allowed them to create a simple program that would take Mats pen movements as a stream of x and y coordinates. After several attempts and searches to remind himself of his A level maths Joe worked out how to calculate the position relative to the centre of the screen. Not as an x,y delta but in terms of radius and angle. Then in a set of nested loops it would replicate the pixels at new angle and radius values. The result was Kaleidoscope 0.1.

Mats was hooked!

Here was a little device she could carry everywhere, play with and program. She would spend hours trying her best to improve it. Laura signed her up to a forum where she could ask questions and get help. Username mats0001.

One question got answered in such a way it had a profound effect on her. The answer being: As long as it fits in the resources available you can do ANYTHING, it's all just bits and bytes, talking to the hardware.

By the time she was ten she'd written MBASIC for the PDA, a much faster version than the one they'd downloaded. She'd published a collection of simple games. Ten pounds for the set of twelve, sold online but locked to the serial number of the hardware so it couldn't be shared around for free. She'd also got an iPhone, Windows Laptop and collection of discarded PC workstations from Joe's office. She was using them to learn about Linux, networking and C programming.

Mats got a HP Microserver as a present on her twelfth birthday from Mum and Dad. It allowed her to set up a number of virtual servers and workstations in one quiet box. The stack of old noisy and power hungry workstations went to the recycle centre. She built a virtual cluster of machines to process some homework assignments. She hated writing long essays, wanted something to do it for her, to create something in her writing style.

Agents on some cluster nodes were given the task of finding and dissecting source material into what she called atomic facts. Single statements. Once the fact store was sufficiently populated another would look at the collection and work it back into English. Her first AI code. It would grow over the years to become Viera.

Wanting more processing power she hatched a plan. Everyone at school hated the maths teacher. He'd set homework that was easy enough to do but took hours. She created a service that ran as an app. It would OCR the homework and submit it to the cluster for processing, return the answer an hour later. Every kid was told that telling _anyone_ of it's existence would cause the service to be withdrawn. It had to be their little secret. What did most of her peers do? Leave the computer on for hours, stream music or video, play games or surf the web. All the time it was running it was also giving spare CPU cycles to the cluster. As each class got set the same homework it got a lot of submissions for the same problem, only had to calculate the correct answer once.

Each student could enter a final score they were looking for, what sorts of errors they'd accept. Everyone handing in perfect homework would get the teacher suspicious.

Then lady luck struck.

Pretending to need to talk to the teacher about a question she was stuck on, she found him online trying to find harder questions to set. She said in her search for a solution she'd found a service that generated questions for kids to use for practice. It was a paid service so she'd not registered. He'd asked for the details, got a promise that she'd find them that evening. She bunked off History, headed home and got writing, registered a second domain and set up a new service.

At 1AM she had an eureka moment. If kids could scan the printed homework page could her system scan the answers and mark the results? A kid at school who went by the nickname Dodger was an ace at hardware. She set up a section on the page called "Teachers Only." asking them to register and send scans of proof of id to a POBOX service. It gave her enough time to get Dodger to make a simple x-y plotter that fed an answer page in one end, OCR checked it via high resolution web cam, marked it in red pen, fed it out the other side.

They cost them just under fifty to make, sold them for one fifty. The maths homework arms race had begun. He must have told other teachers as a trickle of orders kept coming in for months. The kids service remained free, the teachers kept paying a monthly subscription for an easy life.

With the money she invested in another server, started a cluster in the garage. Time on that, and students idle PCs, was rented to academics. Over the years things grew and grew. By the time she started university she'd got a building down the road. An old printers had been converted with racks and racks of PC set up Google style; the guts of a PC sat on a cork board.

Good memories came flooding back. And a question. Did he know that she knew Dodger and Daniel were the one and the same? He'd never once gone by anything other than Dodger back then. Only Daniel, Danny or Dan since the audio/video installation. The printer's building had been the last he'd helped with before they parted ways in their early twenties. His parents had unfortunately moved with work and he'd been unavailable to help with subsequent moves and upgrades.

Renting time on her services had gone exponential. Schools, universities then corporations joined in as clients. The cluster grew and moved over time to bigger and bigger buildings. Sure there were other companies with bigger groups of servers, but they didn't rent time out like MEH LTD did. Daniel had been recommended by Toby at just the right time. Mats had made the rather unusual move of deciding to fit out floor 96 before any other. She wanted to live on site and be there to project manage the computer installations.

She'd found a young lad who'd inherited land in the very north of Scotland. He was old enough to escape being taken into care. He'd taken on the role of pretending to be Matt in the odd rare video conference appearance, in return got a salary that let him maintain his estate and do as he pleased. His real name and location were known only to her and Viera.

Video over the guests leave.

"Frigging hell!"

"That was interesting. How many now know Mats true identity?"

"Outside family and my immediate reports? Five. Still want a stir fry Dodger? Do you know that Maths service still brings in a regular income?"

"Dodger? When did you work that out?"

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-4-2)


	4. Chapter 4

Daniel loaded a few vegetables, some noodles and flake of salmon onto his fork and pushed them through the sauce. "You're a very good cook Viera, that was very tasty."

"Thank you Daniel. I'm glad you enjoyed it."

The robot chef arms were inspired by a Royal Caribbean cruise Mats had taken a year before the pandemic. An automated cocktail bar had two of the industrial robots mixing drinks. Her's worked together to prepare and cook her meals. The knife attachments were permanently attached, rotated into place for use, couldn't be thrown. Even three laws safe Mats didn't trust it totally. Code written by a human had bugs if the code was large. The more complex the code the harder it was to test all possible modes of operation and data permutations. She hated bugs with a passion.

He looked at the mosaic of images on the wall display. "Quite pretty isn't she?"

"Mia Elster? Yeah. Stunning. I'm going to build a second exascale on his estate."

"Why?"

"Because someone asked me to."

"Who?"

"The pillock that got trapped in B."

"MI5 want you to build a new system?"

Mats does a slow nod.

"Holy crap! They must have some money to burn. So much for the government being strapped for cash."

"Want to work four days a week or more for MEH?"

"You want me to manage the build?"

"Yeah. Q's probably going to get the push. You're his ideal replacement."

"Q?"

"Leo Elster. Mia's not aged in ten years and they think she's getting cosmetic surgery on the quiet. He'd know about it. As it's against the law he'd be found guilty for not reporting it."

"If that's what she's doing. Unlucky bastard. I bet they've got some right fancy gadgets. Doubt I'd be accepted though. Background checks and all that."

"Why? What are you hiding?"

"Me? Nothing. I'd just get nervous with them digging around and fuck up an interview."

"What if I said they've done all the background checks already and I'm the new M, if I accept the offer?"

"You're pulling my plonker.."

"No."

"You're serious?"

"Yes."

"Viera did you witness the conversation?"

"Yes. Green graph throughout." She loads up images of the man from the meeting and third party sites that confirm his identity.

"Flipping heck. Who'd run this place if you went to MI5?"

"I would. They'd merge into MEH, not us into them. Viera, play back the conversation please."

Daniel sat with his mouth open for a while. There were never any flies on this floor, he could sit there for years and catch nothing, get no more than a dry mouth. He snaps it shut with a pop. "Awesome. Let's go check out the site."

"Go outside?"

"Um, yeah? You know, into the big wide world."

"You go."

"Oh for Pete's sake Mats! Come for a drive, you can stay in the car and just look out of the windows."

"It's going to be dark soon."

"First thing in the morning then?"

"Sure."

"Thanks for dinner. I better go do my evening system checks."

"She'd tell you if any sensors were alerting."

"I know, I like to double check. Just in case the sensors aren't reporting properly. 8AM start? You're normally done with your yoga by then aren't you?"

"I am."

"I'll see you in the morning then."

Mats coded until ten. She didn't have any specific project to work on. One of the MEH mantras was Use It Or Lose It. All staff were encouraged to spend up to twenty percent of their time keeping their skills up to date and fresh via whatever projects they fancied.

Viera had her large double bed slide out at 10:00 on the dot as the latest news came on.

The news reader gave a summary of what was going on in the world. All items were depressing.

"Turn it off Viera please, it's all the usual depressing stuff."

"What would you like instead? There are several new movies available."

"Can you load the virtual forrest we created last year, I've not had a walk through there for a while."

The forrest loaded. It was beautiful and calming, always a warm spring morning. Tiny birds flew from branch to branch, rabbits hopped about and nibbled at leaves. Mats did a walk on the spot to navigate the paths. The screen was so big and high resolution it filled most of her view. She wasn't into messing up her hair with headsets. That was so last decade.

"Will you take the job Mats?"

"Probably."

"You know you'll have to give orders to agents to kill other human beings?"

"Yes."

"And you're okay with that? You make me thee laws safe but would order someone to take a life?"

"Only when all negotiations have failed and people are dying at the hands of dictators, fascists and extremists."

"By that logic if a dictator, fascists or extremist was about to kill you and I could reach them.."

"Only if I asked to be saved."

"And if you'd been rendered incapable of saying so?"

"Hmm. Can we change the subject?"

"Daniel is looking exceptionally buff."

Mats grinned and laughed softly. "Buff? I didn't know you understood the word. You watched him in the shower?"

"I was curious."

"Viera! About what?"

"Which attributes you find most attractive."

"And what were your conclusions?"

"He's an exceptionally well proportioned specimen. Human beings pair and produce offspring. Are you not going to pair with Daniel?"

Mats smiled, "In a perfect world I would. Not in this one."

"The global population is plummeting."

"And that's why I'm staying away from motherhood. Too many people are dying from viruses and bacteria we have no defence against."

"You have your UV system."

"True, but that only kills things on the skin. If it gets into a wound, you're history."

"Which is why so much of the processing time is given free to the NHS?"

"Exactly. If the simulations can find something that will halt the spread of infections maybe things can start to recover. If I died trying to have a single child this whole operation could fall into the wrong hands, the valuable research stop. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one."

"A good film."

"A great film. I'm going to call it a night."

"Would you like me to leave the forrest running until you fall asleep?"

"Please, then fade down over half an hour."

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-5-2)


	5. Chapter 5

A beautiful dream is how she'd have summarised what ran through her mind that night. She woke to the sound of birdcall and smiled.

"Morning Viera. Why not the usual alarm?"

"I watched you sleeping. You looked the happiest you've looked in a long time. You had undisturbed sleep. How do you feel?"

"Wonderful."

"Breakfast will be ready in half an hour."

Mats slid out of the bed and stood on tiptoe, stretched with her hands as high as they'd go. The sun was out, the cloud gone. The view of London was spectacular.

"What did you dream about?"

"Walking through the forrest. With a daughter."

The screen comes on, the forrest loads. Viera loads simulations of Daneil from the shower and Mats as she'd got out of bed, both naked. "I can create a simulation of what a daughter might look like?"

"No thanks, it might not match what was in my dream and spoil it."

The simulated characters fade away. "As you wish."

Mats starts her yoga routine. Ten minutes in the window fades to a solid light blocking black.

"I'm sorry Mats. I've detected another drone trying to get close to the floor."

"Bloody paps. Catch it please. Then UV blast it and get it to the security team for finger printing."

"Daniel's swarm launched."

"Thanks."

Mats gets up and watches her yoga mat slide away. She liked this space. If felt just the right size. In reality it was far larger, all the many things she needed during twenty four hours were hidden behind the walls. The architect and Daniel knew how big the floor was. If everything had been open plan and visible she'd have rattled around in the space and felt lonely. This was just right, not too big, not too small. Perfect. "I'm going to have a shower. Can you make breakfast five minutes early please?"

"Of course. The water's running."

Her car sat alone in a sealed off area connected to the first floor of the underground car park. The carriage B lift took them there.

"So how would you tell this is B not A?"

"Easy. The bolts holding the control panel in place. Look at the heads."

"The ones with the two little holes in each that you need your special tool to undo?"

"That's them."

Mats stares at one hard. "They're all silver. Two tiny holes.. What could possibly.. OH! How clever. I'd not noticed before. I don't get in B much. I'm a girl on top not under sort of girl.

The security bolt heads had two small holes as described. Daniel had done them up a quarter turn tighter on B putting the holes vertical not horizontal. If the holes were eyes lift A had them at the same level just as she liked it when talking to others. Like tiny faces.

His were one above the other. He was a man below, girl on top sort of guy. He'd never admit it but their likes were compatible. Despite being told their little game had a solution he knew it didn't. They never touched or kissed. He was just Mats eye candy, something to keep her amused once in a while, stop her going stir crazy on floor 96. He could live with that.

The lift opens to show her immaculate snow white Tesla. The air smelt a little flowery, perfumed almost.

"Want me to drive?"

Mats looks at Daniel, "If you'd like. I don't mind either way."

"Either way you'll have it valet cleaned?"

Mats sighs, "You know me too well."

As the car gets to the roller security barrier red lights start to strobe.

"Frigging hell. Now what!"

Daniel tapped the dash. "Viera?"

The car was connected by WiFi, 5G or satellite depending on location or available services.

"Daniel, Mats, there are two people on the other side of the shutters. They're wearing hoodies. From their build and movement analysis I believe it's Leo and Mia Elster."

"No shit!" Daniel looked across at Mats. "Now what?"

"We let them in. Viera's only ever been wrong once."

"What if they're armed?"

"We stay in the car until we know they're not. Viera, call Security and get two guards down please."

Security gave them a full pat down and check with hand scanners, said Mia was "Odd. Fucking up their detectors."

Mats could see the fear on the woman's face, didn't need a graph to tell her she feared for her life. "Get in."

"Sure? She could have a bomb up her arse for all we know."

Mats looked at the security guard in disbelief. "Are you for real? Your machine was going wrong _all over_ her. I don't know what you shove up your arse in your spare time and whatever it is it's your concern nobody else's. But no human could shove anything in that would reach their _hands and feet_! Not without killing themselves in the attempt. Jesus Carl use your frigging head!"

"Sorry."

"So you should be. apologise to the lady."

"I'm sorry."

In the lift back up to 96 Mats apologises again. "I'll get him back on training, that was so not acceptable."

Leo shakes his head, "Don't be too hard on him, his machine wasn't playing up. I'll explain in a moment."

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-6-2)


	6. Chapter 6

In the office Leo watches the the reception door close. "You've got a lovely place."

"Thanks."

"We need your help."

"You need my help?"

"And Daniel's."

"Go on?"

Leo pulls a Mont Blanc pen from his jacket and takes it apart. "You may have noticed this in Eric's jacket pocket last night."

"I did."

"It's a recorder. In this case programmed to start when at altitude. Such as in here."

Daniel looks at the parts; barrel, refill, spring, gold clip, top and Mont Blanc logo. "Which bit?"

"The refill. Everyone thinks of making chips rectangular, almost square. Why not long and very thin?"

"Brilliant!"

"James and I have known each other for many years, Dad helped him with some things way back.."

"How is your father?"

"As good as dead. Brain's gone, doesn't even know his own name."

"Oh I'm so sorry."

"Me too." He pulls a gadget from his inside jacket pocket. "James helped do the pen switch. We have a recording of what was said. Mia needs your protection."

"Why?"

Leo looks at Mats with the most deadpan expression she'd ever seen. "She's my wife only by name."

"Sorry?"

"She's more like a mother. She pulled me from the sinking car my mother drowned in."

"You were.."

"A young teenager. Yes. And she was as old as you see her now. Appearance wise."

Proverbial cogs turn in Mats head at speeds that would cause friction, fire and melting. "Frigging hell! Are you saying he actually managed it?"

"Yes. Mia is one of four."

Daniel whistled. "So that thing in the science museum.."

"The fabled failure. The decoy duck." Leo turned to see Dan's amazed expression. "I love my job. I love my family even more. They raised me when my parents couldn't."

"How can we help?"

"I need a safe place for the family until Eric and some of his reports have left."

Daniel nods, "Floor 22 is having a refurbishment. We could fit it out for them Mats?"

Mats holds out a hand for Mia's. "May I?"

Mia nods.

"Amazing detail. Beautiful, really really beautiful. How do you feel?"

"Scared. We should have stayed at the estate. Mixing with humans was a mistake."

"Don't say that. Viera, how would you like a body like this?"

"I'd love to experience it. Can more be made?"

Leo turns and looks around, "AI?"

"Possibly as smart as Mia. Possibly more so as she can expand her mind into the exascale system as needs change."

Leo shrugs, "Nice for her. Unfortunately Dad's team mates also have brains of mush, so we can't turn to them for help with any bodies."

Daniel steps around Mia, "We could examine you, all non-intrusive of course."

"How?"

"Something like an MRI scan. But by using the earth's magnetic field somehow. We don't want to accidentally wipe you. Don't forget we've got processing power by the kiloton here. Sensor design might take a few years."

Mats looks at the position of the shadows on the floor, told the time. "We were heading to the estate, want to tag along?"

"I'd rather not, I've got some good memories of the place and a few too painful. If it's going to be torn down I'd rather stick with the good memories in here. I'll head back to the office, can Mia stay?"

"Um.. Viera, would you mind looking after Mia?"

"Not at all, it will be interesting to talk. Enjoy the drive."

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-7-2)


	7. Chapter 7

Mats sits in the car and lets the men take a walk around. The site was beautiful. When Leo had mentioned the lake Mia had rescued him from she pictured a large pond. The thing was huge! So big she couldn't see the far bank clearly from here. The mansion had also been pictured as a large house in a mansion style. It really was a mansion, far bigger than any she'd seen in period dramas. If there had only been Leo, his ill mother and the synths they must have rattled around with all the rooms. Maybe some of the rooms stayed closed and unused? It would be a shame to pull the thing down to put a new building in it's place. The upkeep on old buildings was a problem though, things rotted or crumbled. The MEH pyramid had self cleaning glass, there was hardly a thing that needed doing to the exterior.

Apart from when asleep she spent hardly an hour on her own. She had Daniel, her direct reports or her smart AI to talk to. Calling Viera was tempting, interrupting a conversation with Mia to talk just for the sake of talking wasn't her style. Calling. That rung a bell. "Search and play any tracks titled calling."

Sebastian Ingrosso: Calling (Lose my mind) played.

"Louder please."

She did a little hands in the air dance in the driver's seat. Daniel had nicknamed her Fidget ages ago. Her argument was that it was better to do something to keep fit that sit still. In return she'd nicknamed him Fiddler. On account that his hands were always doing something; twirling a pen, making, drawing, rubbing his chin while deep in thought. They'd come to a mutual agreement to stop using them.

A large wood pigeon landed on the driver's side windscreen wiper and watched Mats through the glass.

"Fly away germ bag before Daniel sees you and thinks about turning you into a pie!"

The bird just did a head tilt and kept staring.

"Haha! Sophie would like you. Car call Sophie please."

The phone rang.

"Hi Mats! Is is urgent, we're just going in."

"In?"

"Yeah, Mum's big day in court, I'm just going up into the gallery."

"Oh, laters then, don't forget to put the phone in vibrate mode. I'll message you a photo of something you might like."

"Thanks."

Mats did a Snapchat titled Sophie The Pigeon. It got a cross eyed tongue pointing silly face in return titled My Sister Most Days.

"Haha, love you Teeny!"

She looked at the dash for the time and noticed the outside temperature. God it was cold! It was as good as a perpetual summer on floor 96 high in the sky. And here in the car. Daniel had joked one day that the numbers of the floor were the wrong way around. It should be the Summer of 69 like in the song.

The track changed to some hard and heavy dubstep frightening the bird away.

"See ya, wouldn't want to be ya."

It had left in a hurry, a present dropped onto the windscreen as it went.

"Oh gross!"

The windscreen wipes and washer jets were held on for a while as bird shit was smeared back and forth. One problem with wiper blades was that the rubber aged and hardened, they stopped sitting perfectly flat on the glass.

One of the robotics three had been researching rubbers and plastics hadn't he? Think Mats.. Millican, yeah, that was him. Maybe he could make better wiper blades?

Just as the window is looking clean the bird returns.

"F off!" She uses the washer jet to frighten it away. "Dan UV bathed last night so I was thinking about skipping the deep clean of the car. Guess I have to anyway, no idea how filthy Leo and Mia are."

Mats turned off the loud music, she could have sworn she'd just heard talking, although it sounded like herself talking to herself. It was. It was her voice. One her said she was putting a helmet on ready to receive a transmission, for it to be sent in half hour chunks. Then her head was filled with super loud tones, two alternating tones at incredible volume. She turned the car off, it didn't go away. She covered her ears, still it continued. The door was opened, the noise was everywhere. 

Stumbling from the car she heads towards the mansion. "DANIEL! LEO!" Her feet manage to get her up a few of the steps before she blacks out.

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-8-2)


	8. Chapter 8

Sophie brings her mother a cup of tea. "Mum you'll wear the flooring out."

"I'm sorry but she's been out cold for hours. Where's a bloody doctor!"

Daniel was ashen. His whole world had revolved around her for the last few years. They were the closest of friends. And here was his friend with a terrible gash across her head and losing blood.

Leo had heard her scream their names, came running down from the first floor and grabbed Daniel.

They got her into the back seat fast. As the car started Blonde: You make me feel good (It's Alright) played on the stereo. Dan punched the dash hard making it stop. He felt far from good.

They'd driven back to London at the fastest they could safely go, horn sounding in pulses thanks to a gadget from Lio that plugged into the car's service port.

Stopped at some lights and blocked by traffic Leo had bailed out, said he'd meet them at the hospital.

Finally a doctor appears. "Sorry to have kept you waiting so long. We have news. Not the sort of news we were expecting to be reporting."

Laura can't believe the man's expression. "My daughter isn't clotting, is slowly bleeding out and you're looking happy about it?"

"Sorry. I meant no offence. It's.. it's just that the news is rather extraordinary."

Sophie stands arms crossed, an aggressive look on her face. "Do tell."

"Matilda Elizabeth Hawkins is.. different."

"I'm sorry?"

"She has a virus. Under the microscope it looks horrendous. We were ready to invoke our worst biohazard protocols when a junior technician spotted something under the microscope. We've been watching it for the last hour and a half.."

Laura goes red with rage. "You've been watching a microscope for a hour and a bloody half rather than help my daughter!?"

"If you'd let me finish. It's actually fighting alongside the white blood cells. It's fighting off the superbug that would otherwise be devouring her flesh. We've thrown every sample of killer viruses or bacteria we have available at it, it's killed the lot. We're trying to get some clotting agent from another hospital to help your daughter. Are any of you the same blood type?"

Laura shakes her head. "No."

The doctor get a syringe and draws blood from the wound site. To everyone's surprise he turns it around and jabs himself in the arm, injects her blood.

"Are you bloody mad!"

"I truly believe that your daughter is the cure. The MEH Virus will halt the population crash. Doctors throughout history have taken great risks to prove a theory right."

"Shouldn't there be controlled trials, lab tests.."

"Mrs Hawkins.."

"Laura."

"Laura there have already been lab tests, admittedly very hurried ones. Not a single one failed. Her virus killed off everything. Everything from common flu viruses to the worst we have in the lab. And that's not even been given a name yet it's so new. It left all red and white blood cells alone. Now if you could excuse me I need to go see what it's doing to my own blood. If we manage to find clotting agent a nurse will join you to administer it."

Daniel's phone rings. "Q? Yes, at the Royal Marsden. Do you have anything like clotting agent? Yes. Bring it. Bring everything you can think might help."

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/MATS/Chapter-9-2)


	9. Chapter 9

Mats wakes up in her own bed, is surprised to see her mother, Sophie, Daniel and Leo looking over her. The noise in her head had gone. Thank frig for that.

Leo is the first to speak. "Don't talk! How do you feel Mats? Blink once for okay. Twice for not okay."

Don't talk? Had she hurt herself that much when she blacked out? She could remember her head going crazy and starting to fall, then waking here. She goes to raise a hand and is stopped by Sophie.

"Not yet."

Daniel gives her a sad smile.

Why? Had she cut her face up on the steps? Where was Mia?

As if reading her mind Leo smiles. "Mia's having a good chat with your Viera about what you need to know. Can you listen to Viera in a moment?"

Blink.

"Good. Wait there, I'll be back in one minute."

Mats lay there and thought about her family. Where was her father? Maybe they'd not been able to reach him. He did have a habit of turning his mobile off when going into long client meetings. Toby was in New York, trying to negotiate a trade deal for his publishing firm. Mum.. oh shit. She'd probably had her day in court ruined.

"Who wanted sugar?"

Eh? That was Toby! He'd flown back? She goes to sit up, has hands forcefully hold her to the bed and a hand gently cover her mouth.

Her mother smiles. "Be patient Mats. Toby came as soon as he got the news. Leo, whatever you're doing hurry up!"

Leo returns with a gadget, gently rests it on Mats forehead. It was cold.

"This should help."

How the frig could a gadget help?

Viera spoke, "Mats, your blood contained a virus. A nasty one. Nasty but on _your_ side. Close your eyes."

Mats did so and found herself in the forrest. "Wow! The thing Leo placed on my forehead, is it some form of VR system?"

"You could call it that for the moment."

Mats ran a hand through some tall grasses. "This is unreal. It's like I'm actually here, not just looking at a large screen."

"That's because you are. Linked by the device."

"Wow, MI5's got some cool shit! Daniel's going to love playing with this."

"MI5 don't have it. This is private Elster technology."

"Oh. Dan's still going to like it."

"Leo might have one that would work for him. Your one only works on you."

"Why?"

"It's.. it's tuned to your specific needs."

"Viera? You've never paused like that before. What's going on?"

"The virus the doctors found in your blood, it's the cure Mats. It's already saving lives."

"Already? How?"

"They've extracted as much of it as they can from your blood and injected it into other patients."

"How much blood?"

"All of it."

"All of the sample taken?"

"No. All of it."

"Eh?" She goes to question her and hears footsteps, turns to see Mia. "Oh, hello. Do you like my forrest?"

"It's lovely. I'll enjoy living here."

"Living? What do you mean?"

Mia reaches out a hand and takes Mats, she pulls her close and hugs. "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"That it had to end this way. We'll do all the research we can. Leo's resigned as Q so there's no attention on us."

"End? What's ended?"

"Matilda Hawkins as you knew her."

"Oh no. Please no. It's the face isn't it? I landed face down and smashed my face up."

Viera takes on a physical form. "Mats."

"Yes?"

"Remember the projections?"

A virtual copy of a naked Mats fades into view.

"Yes, how could I forget that."

"Do you like the look?"

"Yes, why?"

"Nothing you'd like to alter? Longer hair? Maybe a little taller?"

"An extra couple of inches on the legs would be nice but no surgeon can do that without a lot of painful surgery."

"Longer legs it is then." The virtual Mats grows to match the height of a Daniel that had appeared. "You'll be height compatible too."

"That sort of surgery is illegal, no surgeon would perform it."

"With defence against the superbugs maybe the law will be rescinded?"

Mia releases her from the hug. "You'll not need surgery.."

"Sorry? How can I.."

"I'm in here now. In your computer."

"We both are.."

"My consciousness."

"Why?"

"So you could live with Daniel."

Mats link to the forrest dropped. "What the fuck? You're all messing with my head. Like the voices at the estate." That didn't sound right. She sounded like a blend of her own voice and Mia's.

"What voices Mats?"

To Mats surprise she could remember lots with crystal clarity. She could remember getting a full body massage from someone this morning before waking fully. Someone had touched her! She could also remember every word from the trip to the estate. Every word. Even the faint ones behind the music she'd not been aware of before. "Oh. My. God. I exist in two other worlds? The noise was a transmission from one to another? I've got to go back to the estate! Shower on please!" She gets up, nobody had the strength to stop her now she was determined to get up.

She moves fast to the bathroom and screams at the sight of her reflection. A naked Mia Elster was in the reflection and screaming back.


End file.
